Read this over the 2023 Christmas break and wasn't entirely impressed. It is an interesting concept but the handling by the author is too off the cuff in his treatment of the topic. I realize that this is meant as a popular title, but each topic is treated at such a distance that after reading the whole book I really couldn't give you an answer to any of the questions. Granted, that is part of the problem with anthropology (and why I am a historian) and while the narrative format may be "entertaining" the actual answers that are alluded to in each chapter are clouded by paraphrasing and generalization. A few fun facts, and interesting propositions, and I may use some of this in my World Civilization courses, but the (albeit slapdash) bibliography is likely to be more valuable to me than the book itself. ( )

Well I thought it would be some kind of culinary history ( )

(Borrowed from son-in-law and since (with in law's consent) lent to son, so some detail below may be vague.)

An interesting, quick, easy read as to a number (some 14 or so) of 'firsts' across human history, including who (as per the book's title) ate the first oyster, who wore the first clothes, who told the first joke (spoiler warning, it was not a particularly good joke, even if you would call it one!); whose name did we positively know; who was the victim of the first murder etc.

In a number of (but not all) cases, as you would expect, we have no idea whatsoever who these people are, if by that we want to know the actual names of these people. But as is demonstrated in the book, we can know an awful lot about the person (or people): when, where and probably most interestingly, why we are confident we know these things.

I will provide but one (representative) example: who wore the first clothes? As expected, we do not know the actual name of that person. But we know that there was some 39 M years between our predecessors having fur and the advent of clothes. But we do have evidence of humans (and predecessors) having only 2 different types of mites infesting our bodies for a very long time, but a third type developed at one time. And the characteristic of that mite were that it relished the more enclosed environment of a human wearing clothes, rather that the environment associated with merely being hirsute or draping an animal skin around one's shoulders. And they have been able to pinpoint the approximate period and location of the earliest indications of this third type of mite being a thing. Voila, our first clothes wearer.

I understand all of the examples are based on real science, though of course, science can always be overtaken by new evidence and thinking.

But I like not so much the actual answers, but rather the logic, thinking and deductions that lies behind the science that underpins the examples provided this book and many others like it.

So if that sounds interesting, give it a go.

Big Ship

27 May 2022 ( )

One chapter of this book was worth the price of admission to me -- it answers (or at least argues for) the question: what is the oldest known joke? The book also answers a number of other interesting questions, such as the oldest known murder, when humanity first wore clothes, the first invention, and so forth. A bit cutesy in spots, such as when the author names the nameless individuals responsible, but other than that, a good read. ( )